Having made friends online with a gent of “particular
interests”, a father and son head across country to explore the darkest side of
human desire. Heir comes out of the thriving Canadian independent cinema
market. Director Richard Powell’s
pedigree, has been well established with his previous offers Worm and Familiar, and yet with Heir he’s
able to craft a tale that feels universally intimate.

All too often Horror cinema has been given a
bad rap for the gratuitous gore-for-gore’s-sake approach, Human Centipede 3 [review here] I’m looking at you but Powell’s horror is a horror of psychology. It’s a
horror that plants a seed in the imagination first, allowing it to
spread, virus-like, to the eyes before it runs rampant across the screen. Visually Heir
has an almost Lovecraftian feel to it, without it actually being
Lovecraftian. What do I mean by this? There is a considered, methodical pace to
proceedings that reside in era of classic horror storytelling. It stems, yes, from the material but also
from the confidence of the film-maker to “let the script tell the story”. It really
is refreshing to be this traditional.

"They said I was crazy to marry a pillow. They said we'd never last. Well
who's crazy now, huh?!"

Then you have the storyline itself. Few films are brave enough to tackle a
subject like paedophilia, even fewer short films as it’s not a subject you can
simply leap in and out from; yet Powell’s film does it in such a way that the
bulk of the message is “encoded” in the mise-en-shot. In an instant you’re able to draw down
content that facilitates debate. Nature vs nurture, the idea that we’re born the way we are, regardless of
whether that is good or bad; even the idea that paedophiles who prey on their
own kin, are a different species.
A corrupted variant in evolution.

There are not enough words to truly sum up the
majesty that is Heir. Though it plays for 14 minutes it’ll run on a
loop in the darkest regions of your mind for days, and days.